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Friday, February 7, 2014

Sepia Saturday: Good-bye Marion

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the piano. When I was growing up in the 60’s (that’s 1960’s,
thank-you), two things every family wanted in their home were a set of
encyclopedias and a piano. We had
both. Music was part of the family
identity, I suppose.

Momma and Daddy were obviously proud.
I'm sure I banged out a lovely melody on my
baby grand piano that Christmas 1952.

Mary Jollette's "first piano" was this little upright.
Grandma Lucille Davis and I were there
to make sure Mary Jollette didn't fall off the seat.

My grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan even had a room where she kept her piano and an organ. She always called it “The Music Room.” You could hear those capital letters when she said the words.

We’re not musical like the Osmond family, but everyone
was expected to take music lessons.

Even during the Depression, my mother was lucky enough to
have lessons in piano and tap at the Harman School of Music in Shenandoah,
Virginia.

former Harman School of Music
Pennsylvania Avenue, Shenandoah, Virginia

It’s a tiny building.
My dad used to joke that the building was so small the little chorus line
of Shirley Temple wannabes probably had to shuffle out the back door. But it must have been a good school because
Momma used to show us the hop-shuffle-down-step-step steps. There are just some lessons you never
forget.

She was less enchanted with piano lessons though. Momma could play by ear, but she was not much
for actually reading music. I guess she
saw no need to remember “Every Good Boy Does Fine” or “Great Big Dogs Fight
Animals,” much less how to count a dotted quarter note. If she knew the tune, she could sit down and
play it with a flourish.

1993 - Momma either had been playing or was preparing
to play some Christmas carols for the kids.
Clay Pollock, Justin Anderson, Joel Pollock.

Word of her musical prowess must have spread to her
colleagues at Cradock Junior High School.
When the faculty was planning a big celebration for a revered teacher who
was getting ready to retire, they asked Momma to write a special song to perform
at the party. One afternoon she sat down
at the piano, thought for a minute, and then with all the gusto of JoAnn Castle
on the Lawrence Welk Show, Momma began playing “Toot Toot Tootsie.”

Soon the words came:

Good-bye Marion,
Good-bye.

Good-bye Marion. Don’t cry.

You know our
thoughts of you are high

Just like the Fourth
of July.

"Like the Fourth of July"? What the heck does that mean?

Well, think of it as “freewriting” or “brainstorming” in
which the rule is that there are no rules.
All I can say is that my sister
and I were rolling on the floor laughing.
Momma was laughing and crying at the same time, maybe because of the
words, or maybe because she caught a glimpse in her mind’s eye of what it would
be like to perform this little ditty for a woman who had been her mentor, a
consummate educator, a much-loved teacher for decades.

I don’t know what the final version of the song was, but
this is the one that even after 40 years can be recalled in a moment’s notice.

For more stories about pianos, please visit my friends at
Sepia Saturday. They may not always be “upright,”
but they are always “grand.”

We had a piano AND an organ - my sister and I took piano lessons for years and my dad took organ lessons until just a few years before his death. My daughters have wonderful memories of sitting on the organ bench while dad was playing and watching him work the pedals. And encyclopedias - that was a huge investment and something every family wanted. Remember people who would go to door and sell them? Thanks for the great memories this morning.

I remember the spaces: FACE, & ACE/Gee. Over the years I've had 4 pianos, but not all at the same time, of course. One at home until I married, and then 3 after that because we moved around so much. I play 'by ear' & music both, but mostly by 'ear'. And until only a few years ago we owned a set of encyclopedias, but the internet has cleared those bookshelves!

A marvelous story, Wendy. So good it made me laugh out loud, and even sent me searching for the Harmon School of Music on Google Street View. I'm impressed that such a place has still survived on a street that has seen better days. I can imagine that many of the small town musicians in my photo collection once took lessons in a similar shack.

Now Mr. Mike, I expected you to search for the Harman Family, not Google Street View. It's much more to your liking. Mr. Harman taught music at Shenandoah College & Conservatory in Dayton, Virginia. His children ran music schools: Priscilla ran the one Momma attended, and her sister ran the one in Elkton several miles away. The whole family was musical and they often performed together. Now if we could just find a photo of the Harmans you'd be off like a shot gathering the full story.

What a great post...love the piano pictures!We had a piano...I wanted to take lessons but my mom said no because my sister did and then quit...a waste of money in her eyes. we did have a set of encyclopedias though...a little dated by the time I was writing reports- my sisters were 9 and 11 years older than me.

Any encyclopedias we've had have been single volume editions, Now of course everything is on the internet! I don't know of a piano in any of our family's houses. Although my daughter and her husband have an electronic keyboard. I should have had a photo of one of them playing that.

Thanks for great memories...yes on encyclopedia, which of course was out of date by the time I needed to make any reports after 6th grade or so. Piano was supposed to come to me after years of lessons, but I went through a period of not wanting to be tied down to furniture, so it went back to my sis. She must enjoy it sometimes. I finally gave away all my show tunes, which I couldn't play without the sheet music.

What shines through this post is the happy childhood you enjoyed with your wonderful mother, and no wonder, she always seems to be smiling! We had a piano but I never mastered reading music; I wish I had.

What a fun post Wendy! My dad had a "Music Room" too when we were young. We really did call it that. Only his was the room where he had his collection of record albums, a reel-to-reel tape player, a turntable, etc.

Great storytelling, great writing, most evocative. "You could hear those capital letters"... That music school surely has a gigantic basement. Can't be just what we see here, surely[?!?]... :D You've made enough references that I can well picture her at the piano, surrounded by the Osmond Brothers [and Marie too!!], singing that farewell song on the stage of the Lawrence Welk show. I leave you with a personal favorite of mine: http://youtu.be/-3fqJkTeDNU

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net